Health-care bill
burns tanning salons

With controversy centering on the vague yet now-politically explosive term “public option” and long-running battles over abortion assuming center stage in the health-care reform debate some local businesses are feeling more than a bit blindsided by one element of a U.S. Senate-passed plan.

The U.S. Senate, on a party-line vote, passed a sweeping heath-care bill that includes a 10 percent federal sales tax on tanning salons.

“I’m not real happy with Mr. Obama right now,” said Sue Graff, owner of Rev Salon in Carroll.

Obama’s Democratic Party crafted the health-care legislation that passed the Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate must reconcile their respective bills before health-care reform hits the president’s desk. While tanning-salon owners are furious about the tax, which would be lumped on to their services on top of state and local taxes, they aren’t as organized or politically muscular as the plastic surgery industry which fended off a 5 percent tax, popularly known as the “botax.”

“We get a lot of teens that come in and they’re going to be taxed,” Berg said. “My guess is they (lawmakers) are trying to get another demographic of people they can tax.”

Berg’s business has eight tanning beds, which represents about 50 percent of activity there, she said.

She’s not happy about the 10 percent federal tax, which when added to the state and local sales taxes, will create a whopping 17 percent hit on tanners. But Berg doesn’t believe the tanning industry can do much about it at this point.

“What gives them the right to do that?” Berg said. “But what can I do about it?”